The acquisition of expertise in Judo: general and daily activities

El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar la precepción que tienen los judocas de diferente nivel de pericia respecto a las actividades generales y cotidianas. La muestra de estudio estuvo compuesta por judocas de nivel regional (n = 9), nacional (n = 27) e internacional (n = 40). Para la recogida de datos se utilizó el cuestionario como instrumento de medida, a través del cual los sujetos valoraron cada actividad desde cuatro dimensiones: concentración, esfuerzo físico, diversión y rendimiento. Los judocas de nivel internacional destacaron la dieta como la actividad más importante para mejorar el rendimiento dentro de las actividades generales. En cuanto a las actividades cotidianas todos los judocas destacaron dormir como la actividad más importante para mejorar el rendimiento.The objective of this research is to analyze the preception that have the judokas of different levels of expertise regarding the general and daily activities. The study sample consisted of regional level judo (n = 9), national (n = 27) and international (n = 40). For data collection questionnaire was used as a measuring instrument, through which the subjects rated each activity from four dimensions: concentration, physical exertion, fun and performance. The international judokas stressed the diet as the most important activity to improve performance within the overall activities. With regard to daily activities sleep all judokas highlighted as the most important activity to improve performance.peerReviewe

Acute effects of brisk walking on sugary snack cravings in overweight people, affect and responses to a manipulated stress situation and to a sugary snack cue: a crossover study.

Research has shown that acute exercise reduces urges for chocolate in normal weight people. This study aimed to examine the effects of an acute exercise bout on urges to consume sugary snacks, affect as well as 'psychological and physiological responses' to stress and a 'sugary snack cue', in overweight individuals. Following 3 days of chocolate-abstinence, 47 overweight, sugary snack consumers were assessed, in 2 randomly ordered conditions, in a within-subject design: 15-min brisk walk or passive control. Following each, participants completed 2 tasks: Stroop color-word interference task, and handling sugary snacks. Urges for sugary snacks, affective activation and valence were assessed. ANOVAs revealed significant condition x time interaction effects for: urges to consume sugary snacks, affective valence and activation. Obtained data show that exercise reduces urges for sugary snacks and attenuates urges in response to the stress situation and the cue in overweight people

The craving expectancy questionnaire: a brief, theory-based measure of consummatory desire and craving

Background and Aim

Imaginary relish and exquisite torture: The elaborated intrusion theory of desire

The authors argue that human desire involves conscious cognition that has strong affective connotation and is potentially involved in the determination of appetitive behavior rather than being epiphenomenal to it. Intrusive thoughts about appetitive targets are triggered automatically by external or physiological cues and by cognitive associates. When intrusions elicit significant pleasure or relief, cognitive elaboration usually ensues. Elaboration competes with concurrent cognitive tasks through retrieval of target-related information and its retention in working memory. Sensory images are especially important products of intrusion and elaboration because they simulate the sensory and emotional qualities of target acquisition. Desire images are momentarily rewarding but amplify awareness of somatic and emotional deficits. Effects of desires on behavior are moderated by competing incentives, target availability, and skills. The theory provides a coherent account of existing data and suggests new directions for research and treatment

Cue Reactivity to Variously Processed Foods

The NOVA classification system categorizes foods according to their level of processing to differentiate between industrially prepared, or Ultra-Processed (UP), and home-prepared, or Processed (P) and Minimally Processed (MP), foods. Whereas P and MP are recommended as part of a healthy diet, UP foods are considered unhealthy and a contributing factor to global, rising obesity rates. However, food addiction investigators include examples of both UP and P foods within their nomenclature of Highly Processed, addictive foods. Our study is the first to compare the potential addictiveness of a priori classified foods into UP vs P vs MP categories. We presented 169 women with a collection of 45 UP, P, and MP food pictures and recorded their subjective motivational reactivity to each picture. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0; Gearhardt et al., 2016) scores potentiated reactivity to both UP and P pictures, but not MP pictures. In addition, although both UP and P foods produced greater motivational reactivity than MP foods, UP foods elicited significantly greater reactivity than P foods. Our findings concur with previous suggestions that foods can be classified along a continuum of addictiveness potential, but our findings are the first to demonstrate that such classification might be accomplished by following the NOVA classification system. The findings also imply that nutrition experts may need to refine their NOVA classification system and, perhaps, even their healthy diet recommendations

Outsourcing and public expenditure: an aggregate perspective with regional data

Outsourcing can be defi ned as the delivery of public services by the private sector. The sign of the effect of outsourcing on public spending is ambiguous ex-ante. While outsourcing may reduce public spending through higher competition in the private sector, it may also increase public spending due to the presence of transaction costs or the so-called 'hold-up' problem among others. Using a panel of Spanish regions over the 2002-2018 period, this paper explores the association between outsourcing and public spending empirically. Spain offers an interesting case study from a broad perspective, as the degree of decentralization of public health and education is almost complete, and the different regions have adopted quite distinct approaches as regards the public-private mix in the provision of these public services. In line with previous cross-country evidence [e.g. Alonso et al. (2017); Potrafke (2018)] our estimates point to a positive relationship between public spending and outsourcing. The result holds when a number of robustness exercises are carried out. By components, we fi nd that outsourcing is associated with higher public consumption and health spending, while there is no statistical association with investment and education expenditure. In any case, it is worth mentioning that the impact of outsourcing on the effi ciency of public spending cannot be ascertained with our approach, due to data limitations.La externalización (o subcontratación) por parte del sector público se puede defi nir como la prestación de servicios públicos por parte del sector privado. El signo del efecto de la subcontratación en el gasto público es ambiguo ex ante. Por un lado, la subcontratación privada de servicios públicos puede reducir el gasto a través de una mayor competencia en el sector privado, pero, por otro lado, puede aumentarlo debido a la presencia de costes de transacción o al llamado problema de «captura», entre otros. En este artículo se utilizan datos de las regiones españolas, durante el período 2002-2018, para explorar la asociación entre externalización y gasto público. España ofrece un marco de estudio idóneo desde una perspectiva regional, ya que el grado de descentralización de la salud pública y de la educación es casi completo, y las diferentes regiones han adoptado enfoques bastante distintos en cuanto a la combinación público-privada en la prestación de estos servicios públicos. En línea con la evidencia disponible a escala internacional [Alonso et al. (2017), Potrafke (2018)], nuestros resultados apuntan a una relación positiva entre el gasto público y la subcontratación. Por componentes del gasto, la externalización está asociada a un mayor consumo público y gasto en salud, mientras que no existe una asociación estadísticamente signifi cativa al gasto en inversión y en educación. En cualquier caso, el análisis del artículo no permite identifi car el efecto de la subcontratación sobre la efi ciencia del gasto público, debido a la difi cultad para medir la calidad en la provisión de servicios públicos

Trafficking in Human Beings. A Comparative Study of the International Legal Documents

Reseñ

Validation of the Spanish version of the body image acceptance and action questionnaire (BI-AAQ-Spanish): Measurement invariance across cultures.

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the Body Image Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (BI-AAQ) and its recently developed 5-item version, the BI-AAQ-5. The BI-AAQ measures psychological flexibility/inflexibility regarding body image. A sample of Spanish adults (n = 938) completed the BI-AAQ and a battery of measures (including body mass index, psychological flexibility, exposure to and internalization of sociocultural body image expectations, body dissatisfaction, and eating disorder symptoms). Measurement invariance was tested against a U.S. American adult sample (n = 866) that completed the English version of the BI-AAQ. The unidimensional factor structure of the BI-AAQ and BI-AAQ-5 was replicated in both samples using confirmatory factor analysis, with model fit indexes ranging from adequate (e.g., CFI = 0.95) to excellent (e.g., CFI = 0.99). Internal consistency was good for both instruments across samples (α = 0.90 to 0.97). Measurement invariance analyses confirmed full configural and metric invariance and scalar partial invariance. The Spanish BI-AAQ and BI-AAQ-5 showed clear evidence of convergent and incremental construct validity. Both instruments’ scores correlated substantively with theoretically related variables. In addition, the results of a conditional process analysis showed that body-image psychological flexibility measured with either instrument moderated the mediated effect of pressure to conform to cultural ideals of body image on disordered eating through internalization of body image ideals and body dissatisfaction. We concluded both instruments are likely suitable for conducting cross-cultural research with Spanish and English-speaking samples.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Jaén

The Metagenomics and Metadesign of the Subways and Urban Biomes (MetaSUB) International Consortium inaugural meeting report

The Metagenomics and Metadesign of the Subways and Urban Biomes (MetaSUB) International Consortium is a novel, interdisciplinary initiative comprised of experts across many fields, including genomics, data analysis, engineering, public health, and architecture. The ultimate goal of the MetaSUB Consortium is to improve city utilization and planning through the detection, measurement, and design of metagenomics within urban environments. Although continual measures occur for temperature, air pressure, weather, and human activity, including longitudinal, cross-kingdom ecosystem dynamics can alter and improve the design of cities. The MetaSUB Consortium is aiding these efforts by developing and testing metagenomic methods and standards, including optimized methods for sample collection, DNA/RNA isolation, taxa characterization, and data visualization. The data produced by the consortium can aid city planners, public health officials, and architectural designers. In addition, the study will continue to lead to the discovery of new species, global maps of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) markers, and novel biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Finally, we note that engineered metagenomic ecosystems can help enable more responsive, safer, and quantified cities

Blood-based omic profiling supports female susceptibility to tobacco smoke-induced cardiovascular diseases

We recently reported that differential gene expression and DNA methylation profiles in blood leukocytes of apparently healthy smokers predicts with remarkable efficiency diseases and conditions known to be causally associated with smoking, suggesting that blood-based omic profiling of human populations may be useful for linking environmental exposures to potential health effects. Here we report on the sex-specific effects of tobacco smoking on transcriptomic and epigenetic features derived from genome-wide profiling in white blood cells, identifying 26 expression probes and 92 CpG sites, almost all of which are affected only in female smokers. Strikingly, these features relate to numerous genes with a key role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease, especially thrombin signaling, including the thrombin receptors on platelets F2R (coagulation factor II (thrombin) receptor; PAR1) and GP5 (glycoprotein 5), as well as HMOX1 (haem oxygenase 1) and BCL2L1 (BCL2-like 1) which are involved in protection against oxidative stress and apoptosis, respectively. These results are in concordance with epidemiological evidence of higher female susceptibility to tobacco-induced cardiovascular disease and underline the potential of blood-based omic profiling in hazard and risk assessment